A hospital with a soul

The recently completed public art programme is part of the new £450m PFI Southmead Hospital Bristol development. Underpinning the project is a close collaboration between North Bristol NHS Trust, architects BDP, the commissioned artists, developers Carillion and the arts and healthcare consultancy Willis Newson.

Willis Newson had worked with North Bristol NHS Trust for nine years, during the planning and delivery of the public art strategy. It worked with the chief executive, staff and the wider hospital community to encourage involvement in the project and to raise awareness of the benefits that the arts can bring to staff, patients and visitors to the hospital. The public art programme features the work of nationally and internationally recognised artists to animate spaces and create special places within the hospital building and grounds. Pieces of art provide moments of reflection or distraction. They lift the mood and provoke emotional response, encouraging empathy and understanding.

Andrea Young, North Bristol NHS Chief Executive, said: “The art helps to create a more aesthetically pleasing environment, which is important for people’s sense of wellbeing. There are special places where people can have a quiet moment for reflection, things to help you feel more cheerful and things to comfort you. The art is helping to make the hospital a better place to be for patients, visitors and staff.”

While these significant pieces of commissioned public art are central, the project is about much more. A number of arts projects were designed to build partnerships, develop a shared vision, encourage engagement in the process of change and foster a sense of ownership of the new building, an important factor for staff wellbeing:

What’s Our Story captured some of the memories, thoughts and feelings of staff as they moved from the old and much-loved buildings to the new. Poignant, amusing and interesting memories were used to create an exhibition, a film and a theatre performance.
Assemble and Join encouraged staff teams from the two merging hospitals to collaborate and work together by involving them in designing and creating model cars to race on a specially created track in the new hospital.
Partners were able to explore each other’s work in Davis and Jones’ artist-led project ‘Splice’, which involved surgeons visiting the building site and construction staff going into operating theatres.
More traditional consultation and engagement activities included community events, presentations, workshops and consultation exercises.

With North Bristol NHS Trust, Willis Newson set up the hospital’s own arts programme Fresh Arts to enhance the patient experience and improve morale with an ongoing programme of arts activities which includes four gallery spaces. The Fresh Arts Festival celebrated the opening of the new hospital in October 2014 where patients, staff, visitors, families and local residents were able to experience and learn about how art helps to create a better patient experience and environment. Performances, workshops and activities celebrated the role that the arts play in bringing the building to life by connecting to the communities who use it.

Director of Nursing Sue Jones said: “The festival brought a real sense of community to the hospital and was so beneficial for patients. It was like breathing soul into the building. We’ve designed the hospital to be a healing environment, and the arts programme has made that personal for people. There were choirs singing in patients’ rooms, staff and members of the public building model cars, and patients knitting and chatting. Art can help patients to make progress. We have to keep this going – to use the arts to keep the life and community in the hospital for the benefit of patients and staff.”

Gillian Taylor is a freelance PR consultant working with artists and cultural organisations.
gilliantaylorpr.com